Putting a real stop to human trafficking will require more active participation from the media.
“Real men don’t buy girls,” proudly proclaims the tagline of the anti-sex trafficking campaigned run by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. Launched early this year, it was an attempt by the prolific Hollywood couple to turn the attention of the American public to the all-too-real problems of sex trafficking and child prostitution. Although the star-studded campaign (it featured Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, Sofia Vergara, Sean Penn, Jamie Foxx and other Tinseltown luminaries) was a hit on YouTube, it was heavily criticized for its watered-down, offbeat approach to an otherwise grim issue.
The short videos depicted the celebrities doing various ‘manly’ activities such as shaving with a chainsaw, grilling a cheese sandwich with a flatiron, eating cereal and milk out of a box, and opening a bottle of beer with a remote control. Quirky and humorous, each of the videos produced by the Demi and Ashton Foundation garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
Glitzy, Hollywood-helmed productions to support various causes are a common sight nowadays. However, their ultimate effectiveness—as gauged by an increase of actual support for the organizations involved—has yet to be determined.
“This is what happens when celebrities do an issue divorced from the movement,” stated Norma Ramps, director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, in an interview with Fox News. “Once you chose an issue and don’t do it in collaboration with people who have been doing this for a long time, this is what you end up with. There is a general dumbing down that is going on, and this is an example of dumbing down a social justice movement with the narrowest message possible.”
Sensational reportage
In addition to watering down the message, Bärbel Uhl, Chairperson of the EU Commission’s Group of Experts to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, claims that campaigns focusing on a single aspect of human trafficking could sometimes prove to be detrimental to the cause. “There are too many sex, crime and money stories,” she says. “People tend to miss the point that trafficking is a fight by democratic institutions as a whole. It should not always be treated as an emergency. Since 2000, there’s been a very broad concept of trafficking. It can be the sex industry, or exploitation in agriculture… there are so many violations conducted under the anti-trafficking framework.”
As of 2010, the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking reports that there are an estimated 2.5 million people involved in forced labor, usually in the sex trade or sweat shops. Magazines or news shows frequently release exposes on drug busts or sex den raids, but the often-sensational nature of reportage related to the issue is at best a topical solution to a deep-rooted problem. “Build awareness, and to bring to mind the minds of the politicians the real issue and the information behind it,” Uhl adds. “Aim to educate the policy makers.”
“Media organizations who report on human trafficking need to back up their words with actions,” says U. Roberto Romano, a human rights educator, filmmaker and photographer. “It’s our responsibility to show the world as it is, and how to take responsibility for our actions.”
As a filmmaker, Romano produced several documentaries on child laborers. One of these is ‘The Dark Side of Chocolate,’ where he and fellow journalist Miki Mistrati went undercover to expose the working conditions of children in the Ivory Coast’s cocoa plantations. “My policy is to do no harm,” he explains. “In a previous film about children in Pakistan, I didn’t release the film until the producers ensured their safety. While this wasn’t the case [with ‘The Dark Side of Chocolate’], we took action afterwards. We do not want to produce reportage at the expense of the innocents.”
Also, the documentary espouses a call to action, so that viewers are not simply left with a vague idea of the issue. ‘The Dark Side of Chocolate,’ for instance, encourages patronizing brands that practice fair trade with farmers (ensuring that they will be paid reasonably for their goods, and that child labor won’t be used in the process). Basically, conducting a successful commercial or media crusade against human trafficking is about taking action as opposed to simply throwing the occasional news blitzkrieg or two. Christopher Davis, Director of International Campaigns at The Body Shop, sums up the session’s sentiments: “Be empowering, but fundamentally get people involved and make them realize they can do things.”
By: Bianca Consunji
